How Old Coal Mines Are Now Producing Clean Geothermal Energy - Slashdot
source link: https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/23/04/09/0057214/how-old-coal-mines-are-now-producing-clean-geothermal-energy
Go to the source link to view the article. You can view the picture content, updated content and better typesetting reading experience. If the link is broken, please click the button below to view the snapshot at that time.
How Old Coal Mines Are Now Producing Clean Geothermal Energy
How Old Coal Mines Are Now Producing Clean Geothermal Energy (bbc.com) 16
Posted by EditorDavid
on Sunday April 09, 2023 @07:34AM from the mine-crafts dept.Kenneth Stephen (Slashdot reader #1,950) writes:
As the world rolls back on using coal to extract energy, it leaves behind empty coal mines. The BBC reports that the UK is actively using these coal mines as a source of geothermal energy. The BBC visits a wine warehouse in the northeast England town Gateshead, where old coal mines "could still have a role to play in heating homes — but this time, without burning fossil fuels." A new district heating system in Gateshead is poised to begin warming homes and buildings in the area at a cost 5% below market rate, using the clean heat from its mines 150m (490ft) below the ground. The water in the mines is naturally heated in the surrounding rocks to 20 degrees C (68 degrees Fahrenheit), according to the video report — so a heat exchanger on the surface just repurposes the extracted heat for energy consumers. It's a technique that's also being adopted in the Netherlands. But it's especially applicable in the U.K., where a quarter of homes are above old coal fields (as are 9 of its 10 major urban centers).
The report points out that coal is the world's largest source of CO2 emissions, but now coal production in the UK has fallen by 94% in the last 10 years. "So what happens when the coal mines that used to power our cities are no longer used?"
›
"As the world rolls back the use of coal..."
The only ones rolling back the use of coal are the US and EU, and the US is mainly because we have natural gas that's an easy switch.
The rest of the world? Not so much.
The IEA said we hit an historical record in coal use in 2022. China alone permitted 2 new coal plants PER WEEK last year.
Even here in the developed world, whether solar and wind are self sufficient or profitable tends to end up in an argument over minutia of subsidies and historical government support of the fossil fuel industries.
That we are even having that argument is only because we are fabulously wealthy and can dabble in such solutions. The rest of the world isn't rich enough to indulge in such experiments, and just needs power.
-
Even still, in the US they're also being used for rare earth metals (as is the coal ash) as many US coal mines have a lot of them in them. A friend of mine is doing so with some of his mines.
-
Indonesia and Bangladesh recently announced that they will build no new coal power plants.
-
China's coal consumption hasn't risen in over a decade. Nearly 100% of China's coal plants have been replacement projects for shutting down older ones. If you want to be honest then say that China isn't shutting down enough coal mines when they are getting the chance, but otherwise your comment is woefully dishonest.
-
China alone permitted 2 new coal plants PER WEEK last year.
China's coal consumption hasn't risen in over a decade. Nearly 100% of China's coal plants have been replacement projects for shutting down older ones. If you want to be honest then say that China isn't shutting down enough coal mines when they are getting the chance, but otherwise your comment is woefully dishonest.
True, what is expanding in China is renewables, hydro and they are looking at geothermal. The two plants a week statistic sounds like it is lifted directly from this article:
https://energyandcleanair.org/... [energyandcleanair.org]
which is literally the first hit you get when you search for 'china coal plants' on Google. That article goes on to say:
The massive additions of new coal-fired capacity don’t necessarily mean that coal use or CO2 emissions from the power sector will increase in China. Provided that growth in non-fossil power generation from wind, solar and nuclear continues to accelerate, and electricity demand growth stabilizes or slows down, power generation from coal could peak and decline. President Xi has also pledged that China would reduce coal consumption in the 2026–30 period. This would mean a declining utilization rate of China’s vast coal power plant fleet, rather than continued growth in coal-fired power generation.
In the long run China is going to try to reduce its reliance of foreign energy imports as much as possible. Not because they are a bunch of pot smoking, bleeding heart, hippie tree-huggers but simply because coal for one is expensive and because imported fossil fuels in general are a national security liability. This, incidentally, is also what is driving wind and solar adoption in the US-American Midwestern states: https://electrek.co/2021/06/23... [electrek.co]... and thatis why one should always click through, read the entire article and not just assume that the little Google summary contains all one need to know.
-
Recommend
About Joyk
Aggregate valuable and interesting links.
Joyk means Joy of geeK